Worth the upgrade? // Pixel 4a vs Pixel 3 By Mitesh Shah

What's going on from the test here, and today we are going to be taking a look at these two phones right here and comparing them. This is the pixel 3, and this is the hot brand-new hotness, the Pixel 4a. Now in my videos about the Pixel 4a, I've had a lot of people. Ask me whether they should consider upgrading from the pixel 3 that which is a two-year-old smartphone at this point. But this right here was a flagship phone when it came out, whereas this is a mid-range phone, so is it really an upgrade? Let's talk about it, alright! So, let's start off by talking about the pure specs on these things. Once again, this right here, this phone came out two years ago, so it's rocking the snapdragon 845 had four gigabytes of ram and has 64 or 120 gigabytes of UFS 2.1 storage. This phone right here just came out now, and it has a snapdragon 730 g.

It's got six gigabytes of ram two more than this phone, and then it's got 120 gigabytes of storage, same UFS, 2.1 storage. So, unlike last year, when the Pixel 3a came out that one had a much slower storage, whereas this one same kind of storage, but you get more by default, you get 120 gigabytes, which is a really nice thing, especially since 64 gigabytes uh, it's really lacking, but one huge advantage that the pixel 3 has over the pixel 4. You get free original quality backups thanks to google photos. This phone offers none of that this phone three years of original quality backups. If you buy this brand new right now, you still get three years from here onward, so you'll get it until 2023.

So that is a huge feature but yeah. That is just something that you guys get. So even if you get lower storage, it's actually pretty okay, because you'll have all your photos and videos backed up by google. So that is a nice little feature, so yeah in terms of pure hardware um, I would say they're pretty much. Even I did run a geek bench score on both of these and for the snapdragon 730g, the newer processor.

We got a single core score of 522 and a multi-score multi-core score of 1485, whereas on the pixel 3 we got a single core score of 506 and a multi-core score of 1980, so uh in terms of single core score, I would say they're pretty close to each other and then multi-core. Obviously, this phone is much better, but that's not the whole story, because we do have the ram to consider this phone with only 4 gigabytes of storage. Look. I made a video about this before, where google actually did some stuff to fix their issues with multitasking, because this phone just could not keep up, and it just kept killing apps. In the background, it has gotten better, but I have to tell you guys.

The six gigabytes of ram on this phone makes it way snappier than this phone is because it just does not slow down, no matter what I'm doing, if I'm launching the camera, whatever it is, it's just faster on this phone than it is on this one. So the ram, I think, definitely helps. I think it's one of those places, one of those things where I think just more ram on android helps so in some ways this phone feels faster than this one does, even though, by raw numbers. This one technically will be faster now getting past the specs. Let's talk about next about the displays here, as you guys can see, the Pixel 4a has once again this absolutely gorgeous beautiful display goes edge to edge, and it's just a really, really nice screen.

Both of them have OLED screens, which is really nice. The pixel 3, on the other hand, looks a little outdated. It's got these big top and bottom bezels, and these days it just it looks really outdated. Now, the big top and bottom bezel does do, does give you a couple of nice features. First, you get stereo front facing speakers and on this phone they are really, really nice on this phone.

You do get stereo speakers, but you have one in the grille and then one that's bottom firing over here. So it's not quite the same. You can still cover up the speaker, and it will give you like a bit of a different experience than here, where it's basically impossible to cover up those speakers. They're always firing at you. So in terms of media experience, I do find this one to be a little better in terms of watching videos and stuff.

Obviously you don't get that full screen experience and this one does have a slightly bigger screen and I think 5.8 inches, whereas fits 5.5 inches on this one. They both feel about the same exact in the hand. Now. The other thing that you get inside those inside of these bezels right here is you get dual front-facing cameras versus the single front-facing camera over onto this one. So if you're someone who's really into taking selfies, you may want to consider this one because you have the normal uh lens, and then you also have the ultra-wide lens.

So if you're someone who takes a lot of group selfies, that's actually a pretty nice feature to have alright so moving on from the front of the phone. So let's talk about the back of the phone. So here we have once again the fact that the Pixel 4a only comes in the single color, and it is a really terrible black color that I just I'm not a huge fan of, but there's the pixel 3. You get color options. So this is the white one, and I honestly really, really like this color there's also a like a rose gold, slash, pink option that you could have gotten.

I don't it's still available if you could find this phone, but yeah that I do think that this phone just looks better as also the camera bump. Here, it's its just a circle and I think that looks way better than this square bump with the flash and the camera inside it. I just think this phone just overall looks a lot better. It's also better built, of course, with the fact that it's got a glass back uh, it's heavier than this phone. It feels more substantial.

The one nice thing about this glass back is the fact that it is uh frosted back, so you don't have to worry about fingerprints or anything like that. So if you want to rock this naked, this is great, but you're, probably not going to rock this naked, because it's a glass phone, and it can break, whereas the plastic on here I'm okay to rock naked because uh at best it's going to get like a ding in this thing and that's it you're not like gonna break the back of this phone. I mean you'll still break the front, but the back of this phone will definitely survive so yeah in some ways the plastic- it's also a lighter phone, so it makes it a little easier to hold in your hand but yeah. That is the difference between the backs. Um.

One thing you don't get on this phone that you do on this. One, of course, is wireless charging. So let me just take my wireless charger over here. You can just drop it down and bam there. You go it's charging, whereas on this phone you're going to have to plug it in that's just how it is um so yeah they both have USB-C.

They both have the same type of fast charging, so it's both on 18 watts, fast charging. So not going to get an advantage over the pixel 4 3 over the Pixel 4a um. Oh, one advantage of the pixel 3 Pixel 4a has over the pixel 3. Is it's got a headphone jack so yeah. If you're someone who needs a headphone jack, the pixel 3, the Pixel 4a is the way to go, whereas the pixel 3, obviously just no headphone jack whatsoever.

Now, as for the main camera over in the back, these are actually very, very similar cameras. I will be doing a camera comparison, just like I did with the pixel 4, and I would be very surprised if the photos these two take are any different. Now in terms of video, I'm pretty sure the Pixel 4a is actually going to be better because they have real pixel team has really gotten better video quality over the years. Now it's not been a huge leap forward, but in terms of definitely like the uh, audio and stuff, I find the Pixel 4a just to be better, and we'll likely see the same results. I haven't shot that video yet, so I can't really tell you guys, but we'll find out when that video comes and make sure you guys subscribe.

So you guys don't miss that video yeah overall. I definitely think it's an interesting comparison between whether you should get the Pixel 4a versus the pixel 3. You can still find this phone brand new. I just saw it on Amazon for 350, for the 64 gigabyte version and, like I said you get three years of original quality backup, so 64 gigabytes may be worth it on this phone, whereas on this phone you get 350, and you get a brand-new phone and yeah it's uh. It's really kind of hard to decide which one of these to go with.

I think it's really going to depend on what you value a little more so uh. If you want a premium build quality, this phone is definitely better technically. I think this phone will last a little longer since it just came out now it's got three years of updates left, whereas this one will have one more year of update left. So it's got android 11 now, and it will get android 12, but that's it or this one will get 13 and then also 14. So it's a little of a toss up, but this one will definitely last you a little longer.

It is the same price as this one. You get a little more storage. You get no photo quality backup for a while you'll get no 5g on either of these phones uh. Furthermore, you do get a fingerprint reader on the back of both these, and they're, both plenty fast with those. So it's really tough to tell people with the pixel 3 to upgrade to the Pixel 4a, because in terms of what you're getting other than getting more security updates and more updates in the future, you're not really going to be gaining a lot of features, you're, not getting a lot of other quality improvements other than like the screen being nicer.

So I don't know if I would tell somebody who owns a pixel 3 to upgrade to the Pixel 4a right now. I may tell them to wait for the pixel 5. It's going to be a little more expensive, but I think if you've waited two years to upgrade already, then it might be worth waiting for the pixel 5. But yeah with that. That's pretty much it for this video, like I said the camera comparison between these two is coming out soon.

Just you know so in case camera is really important to you, and you want to know if whether that isn't upgraded or not, that would be out soon, but with that, that's pretty much it for this video like if you like to subscribe, you guys loved it and I will catch you guys in the next one. Bye.

Source : Mitesh Shah